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Morris Brown College - Students First: Serving...Learning...Leading! DECEMBER 2000/JANUARY 2001 - 11 Back Burner CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10 up north and Morris Brown is very well known and very well liked. I had no idea that MBC was disliked until I came here to Atlanta. We are the only “REAL” HBC in the AUC. MBC was founded by African Americans for African Americans, sorry I can’t say the same for the others.” As for as she is concerned as well as others and I, our school is just as equal as any other HBCU and it should not be forgotten that a good majority of Spelman, Morehouse, and Clark students go to Morris Brown for classes also. If we are “so low,” why are you taking classes over here? At times, we wonder if it could be that we are being “bamboozled” by the other AUC schools. MBC, you are letting the other schools make pup pets of you. You are doing wild and crazy things as a result of them calling you out of your name because of their jealousy, when you should be feehng a since of pride about Morris Brown College. Don’t let the other schools put you on a back burner. Because, as I recall, MBC is the only school that originally gave blacks a chance and and now gives you a chance. Mind you, I am not trying to offend anyone but I am trying to get a point across. Spelman is too stuck on how you look and how much is your family’s income—Morehouse is just the same. Even though I have a nephew there and friends too, I still down them because they believe that they are superior to us. If you really want to know — Morris Brown has some of the prettiest girls (yes I am taking it there), nicest guys and smartest stu dents. None of the other schools know this because they are too busy think ing that we are lower class and think ing on past events. ” - So again I ask, “Why is Morris Brown College supposedly on the back burner?” It’s because of how things have always been perceived. We must start doing things better for the year 2001. Beat them at their own game. When they disrespect you or our school, kill them with kindness. Kindly correct them and go about your busi ness. They will eventually get the point and will start being cool and respecting you. Our school is a fine institution and for anyone who disagrees, you can come and talk to the students of Morris Brown College, including Meghan Monroe, she’ll be waiting. Thousands are dying in Africa alone. In the United States 0.3% of males and 0.2% of females are infected with HIV. Get Families to talk about sex and HIV/AIDS. Medically accurate education gives young people the tools to act responsibily and protect their health. POLITICAL Where is the Proof on Violations of the Federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 ADVICE COLUMN Dear Lady Love, I’m seeing this guy who’s already in a relationship with another female. We never communicate on campus throughout the day, only at night to avoid people knowing about our secret affair. My feelings for him are over whelming. Throughout the course of the day I find myself drifting away on cloud nine, anticipating another night of his love and affection. Needless to say, his way of lovemaking is all that and then some. The only problem is his girlfriend. She is a member of a sorority that I hope to become apart of someday. Am I a fool? Am I sprung over this guy? What should I do? Whoa! Sweetie, what have you gotten yourself i¥itd?'First, let me commend you for allowing yourself to reach out to someone to help you with your situation; that’s what a sister is for. With that in mind, you need to understand that the female who is indirectly involved in this matter is also your sister; whether you two are blood-related or total strangers. We are all sisters, and true sisters with a sense of self-worth do not sleep or sneak around with the other’s man. That simply defeats and contradicts the essence of sisterhood. Secondly, you are not respecting yourself and your body by giving into this half of a man. Your body is a divine temple, and you should treat it as such. By continuously having sex and accepting his “discrete relation ship,” you are only setting yourself up for a severe heartbreak. If he cares anything for you, he should be able to express his affection for everyone to see. And last but not least, I strongly suggest you research the concepts and purposes of a sorority. All sorori ties on this campus practice and dem onstrate “True Sisterhood.” Your chances for acceptance into any of the sororities will look bad if you continue this unhealthy infatuation. This is because you may be judged based on how you carry yourself and how you are allowing this guy to dictate your feelings; considering he has a girl friend who also happens to be a mem ber of your dream sorority. I suggest you get O-U-T of this mess you’re in as soon as you can, and start focusing on you and what makes you happy. Guys come and go. If he is truly meant for you, you’ll know. But I seriously doubt his loyalty to you and his girl friend. So, let go of him; and let God in. by Gary Faulkner STAFF WRITER M any African Americans expressed frustration and concern about vari ous problems they experi enced with the voting during the 2000 Presidential Election in the Atlanta area. African American voters complain ed that they were denied an opportun ity to vote, were told they weren’t registered when they knew they were, were told they were at the wrong pre cinct when their voter’s card said they were at the right precinct, experi enced roadblocks and/or unnecessary stops by police on streets that lead to voting precincts and police officers asking African Americans for identi fication and if they were criminals or not. “I went to the voting place at Clark and they told me I wasn’t registered. I registered more than six weeks ago. I wasn’t the only one either. There was a person taking names and keeping up with it and she had more than a hundEednames by 12 o’clock,” a Morris Brown College student said “I was headed in the direction of one of the precincts in the West End and I was stopped by the police for no reason. They said they were doing routine checks,” an Atlanta Univers ity Center Student said. “I wasn’t the only one they were stopping either.” These experiences have ignited broad concern in the African American community about deliberate sabotage of voting rights. Some have compared the situation to the disenfranchise ment of African American votes dur ing the Southern Reconstruction and the Civil Rights Movement. “I think there were people who felt this was an important election. And they knew we would have a large turn out, so they did whatever they could to prevent it,” an Atlanta voter said. “It doesn’t make sense for there to have been so many problems trying to vote, and mainly with the African American precincts,” said a DeKalb County resident. Many voters complained of long lines and problems with parking. At some precincts people waited in lines outside in the parking lots. People also complained about precincts not being opened at the scheduled time. The DeKalb voter registration office said they received a lot of calls from voters about the recent election. They said a lot of people had register ed to vote but had not received their voter registration card and the location of the precinct. They said people were advised to call if they had not received them two weeks before the election. They felt this was the cause of many of the problems. Many people tried to contact the voter registration office about not being able to vote, but with so many people calling they had to hold too long , or were unable to get through . They also received a lot of complaints from people who had to wait in line two or three hours, and had something else to do. Laughlin McDonald, Director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Voting Rights Project, said, “I’ve heard some of the rumors, but I don’t know of any hard and fast substance to any of them.” “I’ve heard a new one,” McDonald said, “that there was a policeman stationed outside a majority black precinct and every black male who came into vote this policeman would approach them and say, ‘have you been convicted on any felonies.’ Which would disfranchise them. And he had sort of a handheld computer which he could punch in the guys voter ID or social security.” He said this was un verified and unsubstantiated. “There may be substance, but nobody knows yet” Spokesperson for the Secretary of State, Kara Sinkule, said, “I can tell you that within the metro area we had a lot of people calling telling us that the lines were too long, that they felt like some of the precincts were very overcrowded. We also heard from voters who had received their voter registration cards and when they went to the polling precinct to vote they were told that their names weren’t on the list and they had waited an hour-and-a-half and were unable to vote that day.” She said many voters that registered with the driver’s license bureau were told they weren’t registered. She said this was the source of many of the problems reported to her office. Ms. Sinkule said, “To issue a com plaint, my suggestion is to do two things. One is to complain in the county where you had problems and to detail what your experience was, what difficulties you ran into and to send that letter, or fax it as well—but it needs to be in writing, not only to the county, but also to the state elec tions division as well—so we are aware of what Georgians experienced last week.” She said they would be polling to create a detailed report to present it to the governor and the general assembly to identify the problems and eliminate them before the next elections. She said many of these problems occurred during the 1996 Presidential Elections, but there were more people in this election that thought they were registered and were not. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has complained to the United States Attorney General, Janet Reno, about similar racial voting irregularities in other states. Reno the Justice Depart ment would review allegations and investigate if she found the allega tions represented violations of the Federal Voting Rights Act of 1965.